This post is long overdue. Every Friday since the beginning of the school year I’ve thought to myself that I need to blog about this. Finally, here it is, the cutest class ever:
The classroom is tiny, the equivalent of a classroom closet almost. It was the former teachers’ lounge and is about the same size as the bathroom at the grade school I attended as a kid. Despite the size though, it’s cozy. The room fits the class well.
There are only 5 students.
At our school, parents have the choice to put their children in a Ukrainian speaking class or a Russian speaking class. The huge majority of parents pick the Russian class, and that is why our 3rd grade Ukrainian class only has 5 students. I think it’s a pretty awesome deal for those 5 kids, who will get much more attention from the teacher for the duration of their school experience. But there are some downsides, as you could imagine.
The class consists of 4 boys and 1 girl. When I’m in a classroom of 20 kids, at most, I can pick up on the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of about 5 or 6 of the students at one time. The 5 or 6 who participate, the 5 or 6 who sit at the front, etc. This means that in my 3rd grade class, knowing 5 or 6 students means I know them all.
And they are all characters.
Liza is the girl. The Queen Bee. She bosses those boys around like it is her job. She has this way of saying something to one of the boys—usually a reprimand to be quiet or clean up, then rolling her eyes as she turns her head away, as if pleading with some unseen fellow sufferer to free her from the stupidity of these immature boys. Liza, I can safely say, is the quickest kid in the class. She picks up new topics easily and remembers things well. She is very attentive, and not only keeps herself in check, but corrects the boys when they give wrong answers. Her hair is usually pulled back in a tight, low bun at her neck, and she sits at her desk with her legs crossed, only her height and her neon pink tights giving away the truth of her age. I sometimes look at her and feel like she is channelling the energy of some 1940′s schoolteacher dealing with a naughty class. Despite her high and mighty ways, her bossing comes across more motherly than snobby. She has clearly taken it upon herself to chaperon the boys through their classes. Today, I sat down in the back of their classroom at a desk that was covered in art projects. Seeing me settling in at the desk, Liza came over and started collecting the papers, moving them out of my way, as if she was preparing the room for a visitor—the way I’ve seen Ukrainian women fuss about a kitchen table when I’m invited to tea.
Oleg is straight-up adorable. I can’t look at him without smiling. His face is a perfect circle, as are his eyes. The slightest movement of his chipmunk cheeks thrusts the corners of his bottom eyelids into his top eyelids, and he appears to be in a constant smile-squint. He talks as if his mouth is full of cake, and he is missing his top two front teeth. Every day he wears a suit. A mini, pin-striped suit. His sincerity is overwhelming. When he has any emotion, his entire body displays it. A few weeks ago we were playing a memory/matching game with some preposition flashcards I made. He literally could not stop his body from touching the cards. The 5 of them were standing around the table, each impatiently waiting his or her turn. But Oleg, goodness, the top half of Oleg’s body was leaned over the table, his breath was quick and his eyes were almost surely squished shut. There seemed to be a shudder constantly running through his body, and his hands would involuntarily waver back and forth over the cards. He wanted soooo badly to find a match.
Yarislav has a stutter. “A-a-a-a-a s-s-s-spring a-a-a-a is g-g-green, a-a-a-utumn is a-a-a-a yellow….” Sometimes I feel like I am causing him physical pain when I ask him a question, it takes so much effort to get the words out of his mouth. They are just stuck there in his throat. For some reason, I thought he was only like this when he speaks English. I thought it had to do with him not knowing the words. I’ve seen him speak fine in Ukrainian with his classmates. (I have quite a few students with serious lisps when they speak in English, but none of this seems to be present when they speak their native language. I figured English pronunciation does that to some kids.) But today I asked Natasha about him, and she said that he always has the stutter, in any language, just some times are worse than others. I imagine that the pressure of trying to say something in English makes him more prone to stuttering though. He has a little bad boy version of a mullet—very much in style here among the older boys. I sometimes wonder what kind of kid he’ll grow up to be.
Roman is a miniature business man. He, just like Oleg, wears a suit every day to school, but his face is not so childish as Oleg’s. Roman is much more somber, and although he is the same size as all the other boys, he seems tinier in his grown-up suit and serious demeanor. Today, Vladic was annoying Roman, constantly prodding him in the back with a ruler, and Roman turned around and wacked Vladic on the top of his head with his English text-book. He had had enough.
And Vladic deserved it. Vladic is the class antagonizer. He’s just as smart as Liza. Often, the 2 of them will be given separate work from the rest of the class, because they are a level or two above. But Vladic is in no way as disciplined as Liza. He is constantly fidgeting and messing with the other students. He has been starting fights with them a lot recently, and he has a temper. If he doesn’t get his way, he lets you know he’s not happy. That preposition game I was talking about with Oleg, Vladic was in line after Oleg, but when Oleg got the match that Vladic had discovered, he pouted and refused to play the rest of the game. He just sat there with his arms crossed and tears in his eyes. His classmates pretty much said, “Well, we’ll play without him.” Vladic has been visiting the school counselor lately. The teachers are trying to figure out what’s going on with him, as his attitude problem seems to be a somewhat new occurrence.
And there you go. My 3rd grade class.
